Injured recover after marquee collapse.

The four rally fans hurt when storms dismantled a hospitality marquee at Cardiff's superspecial on Saturday night are recovering at home following time in hospital.

The incident occurred an hour and a half into the stage, which brought Saturday's action to a close back in the host city, and caused the spectator special to be halted with some lower order runners still to complete the course.

The four fans - three men and a woman - were taken to hospital for treatment to superficial injuries, while a fifth was treated at the scene. With no sign of the storm - which had brought torrential rain and gale force winds to the already soaked circuit - abating, health and safety officials deemed it prudent to evacuate around 16,000 spectators from the Cardiff Bay site, despite the stage not having been completed.

"It was very unfortunate, as the superspecial was only halfway through," admitted event spokesman Colin Wilson, "but the weather was really bad and, following the accident, we decided to take the precaution of evacuating the site."

An investigation was launched yesterday [Monday] to determine why the marquee collapsed. Route markers and advertising hoardings were also torn from their moorings as the winds intensified, causing several delays in the proceedings. Petter Solberg won the stage from Subaru team-mates Richard Burns and Juha Kankkunen.

Despite the problem, event sponsors Network Q claimed that Cardiff had been the best host city during its association with the rally.